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Kingston upon Hull was a borough constituency in the town (later city) of Hull. Until the Great Reform Act of 1832, it consisted only of the parish of St Mary's, Hull and part of Holy Trinity, Hull, entirely to the west of the River Hull. This excluded parts of the urban area which had not been originally part of the town, but some of these – the rest of Holy Trinity parish, Sculcoates, Drypool, Garrisonside and part of Sutton-on-Hull – were brought into the constituency by boundary changes in 1832. This increased the population of the borough from around 16,000 to almost 50,000.

The borough sent its first two known Members to the Parliament of 1305 and thereafter with fair regularity from 1334. Until the Reform Act, the right to vote in Hull was vested in the freemen of the city, which made the constituency one of the larger and more competitive ones. At the general election of 1831, 2,174 voters went to the polls.

^ abA petition was lodged after the 1837 election, and Wilberforce's qualification as a candidate was declared defective and his election voided. After scrutiny of the votes, Hutt (who had originally been placed third) was declared elected in his stead 7 May 1838

^ abThe 1852 election was declared void on petition. Hull's right to representation was suspended and a Royal Commission appointed to investigate. Once it had reported, a new election was held, which none of the four original candidates contested.

^ abAfter the 1859 election, the election of Hoare was declared void on petition, and a by-election held in August 1859